Young hen harrier which was fitted with satellite tracking tag dies

STV 

10 November 2015 13:41 GMT

A young hen harrier which was fitted with a satellite tag as part of a project to track the rare birds has died.

Holly, who was tagged by the RSPB, left her nest in August this year and the device allowed bird lovers to track her movement around Scotland online.

The nest Holly hatched from was located on high security land at the MOD's Coulport facility, and she was initially tagged in June with the assistance of the MOD Police.

The RSPB announced on the project's website that Holly died. Though experts have yet to recover her body the circumstances of Holly's death are not thought to be linked to wildlife crime.

The Hen Harrier Life+ project aimed to gain a better understanding of the threats facing hen harriers. Illegal hunting and poisoning is preventing a recovery of the rare birds' population, which stands at around 662 breeding pairs across the UK.

A spokesman for the RSPB said: "At the moment we're speculating it's natural causes.

"Quite often young chicks tend to be more vulnerable to predation. It may itself have been preyed upon by a larger bird."

Holly's nest was featured on BBC Scotland's Landward programme in June, and she was named after a member of the production team.

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